Did you know: Supervolcano extinct Neanderthals.

VESUVIUS fire under:

A sea of magma connects the volcano most feared by the Neapolitans to his “brother” even more dangerous: the system of Campi Flegrei.

The Naples area is the most monitored in the world.Why is the most dangerous.

Naples we are accustomed. She was born and grew up in the shadow of Vesuvius. But for the Neapolitans and their neighbors are two dangers. “In this city, they say, and they think of the volcano Vesuvius.”

This giant towers over the city and appears on every postcard; the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, not far remember what he is capable. But Napoli lies on a volcanic area much wider, which also includes two “brothers” of Vesuvius.

One is quiet: the volcano of Ischia, which last eruption in 1302 shows no signs of awakening.

But the third brother is another story. At the other end of town from the Vesuvius and is a true titan: a large volcanic system that spans virtually the whole bay of Pozzuoli, from eastern to Posillipo.

Are the Campi Flegrei. What’s more, after years of study, geologists have concluded that all of these volcanoes are connected by a sea of magma buried to 10 km depth.

In calderas as the Campi Flegrei, to cause the rash is contact between rising magma and water trapped in pockets between 1 and 3 km deep (what alimentafonti and fumaroles in the area).

That’s what happened 39,000 years ago: half Campania was buried under a cloak of tuff, but smoke and ashes caused environmental and climate change across Europe.

“Some people think that the eruption has caused the extinction of the Neanderthals, which occurs at about the same time,” explains De Natale, geologist Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.“It is possible that, unlike Homo sapiens, has failed to adapt to climate change.”

Then, fortunately, the monster has calmed.

The only eruption in historical times dating back to 1538, modest compared to those that preceded it, but it impressed the Neapolitans. On 28 September, the sea retreated more than 300 meters. The next day, the ground at a point near the coast began to swell, “as when the pasta is growing,” wrote a contemporary chronicler.

One below Pozzuoli is called a “supervolcano”.As Yellowstone (USA)

Source: Focus- Italian Institute of Volcanology.

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